A nurse battling a secret cocaine habit set up a drugs racket of her own using prescription-only medication she looted from NHS hospital wards.

Amie Heller, 30, was jailed for three years and eight months after stealing a range of painkiller tablets so she could deal to friends who had been complaining of various problems.

The mother-of-one - who complained of feeling 'undervalued' due to her 'extreme shifts, on busy short staffed wards' - plundered the drugs over a period of a month while working at the Royal Blackburn Hospital in Lancashire.

She was caught after NHS bosses got an anonymous tip off that she was taking drugs from the hospital and carried out stock checks whilst Heller continued working unaware the net was closing in on her.

Amie Heller, 30, pictured, was jailed after admitting stealing prescription medication from hospitals and supplying it to her friends

Heller, left and right, had a secret cocaine habit which she funded by selling on the stolen drugs

The mother-of-one, pictured, was caught after bosses at Royal Blackburn Hospital were tipped off about her thefts and found discrepancies in medication stocks

Investigators found differences between what had been requested from the pharmacy and what had been administered on the wards.

Police were called and arrested Heller at the hospital itself as she was about to start a shift.

She confessed to having an illicit haul of the sleeping tablet zopiclone which had been stolen from the hospital and also a cache of cocaine in her jewellery box.

Police raided her home in Ribchester, near Preston, Lancashire, and found nine snap bags of cocaine, with a street value of £360.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

One box of prescription medication was also seized - with the labels removed so they could not be linked to the hospital.

Officers also examined Heller's iPhone which had texts about the supply of cocaine and prescription medicines - including messages from friends with various ailments asking the nurse if she could get medication for them.

It emerged one of Heller's main contacts on the local drugs scene was Jake Lloyd-Haydock - referred to on her phone as 'Jakey work' - who would supply her with cocaine so she could deal it to her friends.

Police found nine bags of cocaine, worth around £360 on the street, after raiding Heller's house. She is pictured left and right, in a mugshot

Heller, pictured, now faces being struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council

In return she would get the drug at reduced rate as part of 'payment in kind.'

Police searched Lloyd-Haydock's home and found three ecstasy tablets and £1,000 in cash.

At Preston Crown Court, Heller was jailed for three years and eight months after she pleaded guilty to theft by employee between July 1 - July 31, 2015, and four charges of supplying Class B and Class drugs from the hospital namely zopiclone, tramadol, dihydrocodeine and codeine.

She also admitted supplying cocaine between December 2014 and July 31 2015 and was ordered to pay £120 surcharges.

She now faces being struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Lloyd-Haydock, 26, admitted supplying cocaine and was jailed for two and a half years.

Both face a Proceeds of Crime hearing in May during which it is expected they will have to pay back the profits from their crimes.